NFL’s Patriots donate plane for anti-gun demonstrators
In case you were wondering who underwrites the costs for the big anti-gun march in Washington, here’s at least part of the answer.
Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, gave his support to the recent national #MarchforOurLives gun-control rally by lending the team’s official plane to students and families in Parkland, FL, who wanted to attend the Washington, DC, event, the Boston Globe reported.
Stacey James, a spokesperson for the team, reportedly told the Globe that the families of some of the victims of the Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, along with some students who were injured, were flown to the nation’s capital before the event.
James said Kraft made the decision to support the protest after being contacted by former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, whose organization has become one of the beacons of the anti-gun movement.
He added, “This is not fair that they have to deal with something like this at their age.”
The students and family members were then scheduled to be flown back at the conclusion of the rally. According to the Globe, neither Kraft, who has said he is a Trump supporter, nor any Patriots team members were on the flight.
NY DA Vance called out by ‘Time’s Up’ Movement
Do you ever wonder about how money buys favor in politics?
Anti-gun and knife hating Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has been called out by leaders of the anti-harassment Time’s Up movement, which penned an open letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, calling for an investigation.
According to various news reports, the Vance office launched a probe into mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2015 at the urging of model Amber Battilana Gutierrez, who was convinced by the NYPD’s Special Victims Department to meet with Weinstein a second time and record him—and, according to published reports, Weinstein admitted on the recording that he had groped Battilana Gutierrez.
“Reports that District Attorney Cyrus Vance could have been improperly influenced by Mr. Weinstein and/or his representatives, and that senior officials within the DA’s office may have sought to intimidate Battilana are particularly disturbing and merit investigation. Similarly, reports that the New York Police Department chose to isolate Battilana from Vance’s staff because they feared his office was actively working to discredit her story demand immediate scrutiny,” the Time’s Up letter said.
The International Business Times previously reported that in the months after 2015 charges against Weinstein were dropped he donated $10,000 to Cyrus Vance’s political campaign, the media website Deadline reported in mid-March.
Several days later, the Deadline website reported that Cuomo’s office had issued a statement calling for a review of Vance and his office’s handling of Battilana Gutierrez’ complaint and the Time’s Up letter. A Vance spokesman said the office would cooperate “fully” with the governor’s request.
Gun control should begin in anti-gun politicos’ offices
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is an outspoken supporter of strict gun control laws, and in March he joined a student walkout in the wake of the mass shooting that killed 17 students and staffers at a Parkland, FL, high school, but he should explain how one of his staff is involved in a case of illegal gun possession.
This de Blasio administration official set one heckuva bad example for the teens she was hired to keep out of jail, the New York Post observed.
Reagan Stevens, a deputy director in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, and two young men were arrested for illegal weapons possession while sitting in a double-parked car near the scene of a Saturday night shooting in Queens, cops said.
A loaded, 9mm semi-automatic pistol with its serial number defaced was hidden in the car’s glovebox, and there was a spent shell casing on the floor near Stevens’ feet in the rear of the 2002 dark red Infiniti SUV, law enforcement sources said.
The trio’s arrest followed a burst of five gunshots that activated an NYPD “ShotSpotter” device in Jamaica at 9:42 p.m. that Saturday, sources said.
The listening device pinpointed the shooting and private surveillance video captured the muzzle flashes of five shots fired from the Infiniti, sources said.
The handgun seized by cops still held three cartridges — two in the magazine and one in the chamber, sources said.
Stevens, 42, and the two men — who cops say also had knives on them — were later arraigned in Queens Criminal Court, where her mom, Deborah Stevens Modica, has been a judge since 1997.
Her stepdad, Salvatore Modica, is an acting Queens Supreme Court justice. They both declined to comment.
Stevens, who lives in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge, manages youth and strategic initiatives, and her main job is implementing a 2017 state law that will raise the age at which kids can be prosecuted as adults for non-violent crimes from 16 to 18.
Stevens, who previously worked for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and makes more than $90,000 a year, was immediately suspended without pay, according to news reports.
She and her two companions were each charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon — one for the gun being loaded, another for its illegally obscured serial number — because no one admitted owning the pistol, sources said.
Her two companions also were charged with criminal possession of a weapon related to the knives they allegedly were carrying.
Bill in Congress would require national pistol buyer license
Anti-gun Connecticut Democrat Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty has filed legislation that would require people to obtain a “handgun purchaser license” before they are able to buy a handgun.
The measure, H.R. 5490, has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
Esty is leaving office at the end of the year, noted the Connecticut Mirror, “deciding to quit Congress after members of her own party blasted her handling of a former chief-of-staff accused of abuse.”
Under provisions of Esty’s legislation, the attorney general would award grants to states, local governments and Indian tribes “for the development, implementation, and evaluation of handgun purchaser licensing requirements.”
Esty, who earned an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association for her perennial support of gun control measures, includes a misleading assertion in the bill’s opening “findings” segment that “In 2013, more than 33,000 Americans were killed by guns and almost 90 percent of the firearms used in these deaths were handguns.” That would only be accurate by lumping all suicides, homicides and accidental deaths together.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2013 there were 11,208 homicides involving firearms, 21,175 suicides involving guns and 505 fatal firearms accidents, bringing the actual total to 32,888.
Interestingly, the FBI Uniform Crime Report for the same year shows 8,454 firearms-related slayings, of which 5,782 involved handguns.
Combining homicide, suicide and accidental firearms-related death statistics is nothing new for anti-gunners. The news media rarely challenges what amounts to deceptive math, allowing the gun prohibition lobby to perpetuate the impression that there is a violent crime wave in progress.
In reality, roughly two-thirds of all firearms-related deaths in the United States in any given year are suicides. By requiring purchaser licensing, authorities would be able to delay indefinitely the purchase of handguns by just allowing the paperwork to gather dust. A handful of states, most notably New Jersey where a woman named Carol Bowne had been waiting for several weeks to get her permit to purchase approved by the Berlin Township police, when she was brutally stabbed to death in her own driveway by a man against whom she had a restraining order.
Esty’s legislation is just one of several gun control efforts to surface in the wake of the Feb.14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
Federal judge upholds Bay State’s assault weapons ban
A federal judge on in April dismissed a lawsuit that challenged Massachusetts’ 20-year ban on assault weapons, delivering a significant victory to gun-control advocates and to Attorney General Maura Healey, who had warned sellers of “copycat” firearms that they risked prosecution.
“The AR-15 and its analogs, along with large capacity magazines, are simply not weapons within the original meaning of the individual constitutional right to ‘bear Arms,’ ” Young wrote in a 47-page ruling. “In the absence of federal legislation, Massachusetts is free to ban these weapons and large-capacity magazines. Other states are equally free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens. These policy matters are simply not of constitutional moment.”
In his ruling, US District Judge William Young of Massachusetts wrote that the state’s ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines does not violate the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.
Young cited a landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision that found that “weapons that are most useful in military service — M-16 rifles and the like” are not protected under the Second Amendment and “may be banned.”
While his decision did not establish new precedent, or extend beyond Massachusetts, advocates on both sides of the gun-control debate said it could have broad ramifications, noted the Boston Globe.
In another unrelated state court decision the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) struck down the Massachusetts ban on stun guns
The state’s highest court ruled on April 17 that the state’s ban on civilian possession of stun guns violates the US Constitution’s right to bear arms.
The decision is a reversal for the court, which reached an opposite conclusion in a different case in 2015. The US Supreme Court, however, set aside that earlier ruling, saying the Massachusetts court failed to properly explain its decision.
The court said it would leave the 2004 ban in place for 60 days to give the Legislature time to rewrite the law to regulate the ownership of stun guns, without banning them entirely.
“We conclude that the absolute prohibition against civilian possession of stun guns … is in violation of the Second Amendment, and we order that the count of the complaint charging the defendant with such possession be dismissed with prejudice,” the justices wrote.
The defendant, Jorge Ramirez, was charged with illegal possession of a stun gun after a traffic stop in Revere in 2015. He also was later charged with possession of other firearms without the proper licenses. Ramirez’s bid to throw out the stun gun charge on constitutional grounds was turned down by a lower court judge, but later referred to the Supreme Judicial Court.
The law prohibits individuals from ownership of any “portable device or weapon from which an electrical current, impulse, wave or beam may be directed,” and in a manner intended to “incapacitate temporarily, injure or kill.” In the latest ruling, the court chose not to make a legal distinction between stun guns and Tasers, which are more typically used by police.
SAF sues Illinois Department of Children & Family Services
The Second Amendment Foundation is challenging a ban on handguns at home daycare operations in Illinois by regulation of the state Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS).
Joining SAF in this action are the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) and Illinois Carry, on behalf of licensed day care operator Jennifer Miller in Shelbyville, and her husband, Darin. Both have Illinois Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) cards and concealed carry licenses.
For SAF and ISRA, it was the second lawsuit in the state during the month of April. The earlier action was against the Village of Deerfield over the ban on so-called “assault weapons” and original capacity magazines. Eight years ago, SAF and ISRA joined forces to sue the City of Chicago in a landmark case that nullified the Windy City’s handgun ban and incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment. That case was McDonald v. City of Chicago.
This is only the latest in a string of legal actions filed in the Prairie State by SAF since the 2010 McDonald Supreme Court victory.
SAF sued Illinois to force the legislature to adopt a concealed carry statute (Moore v. Madigan), an issue that brought a separate legal action from the National Rifle Association. SAF sued Chicago over its restrictive handgun ordinance that essentially prevented city residents from getting access to required training by prohibiting gun ranges (Ezell v. City of Chicago). SAF recently sued the East St. Louis Housing Authority over a gun ban in public housing.
SAF also has another legal action against the ICDFS regarding the gun rights of foster parents.
NYPD gun permit payoff scandal erupts in court
The first of what may be several trials relating to alleged corruption in the New York Police Department’s Licensing Division over allegations of bribery in exchange for approval of gun permits was underway as this issue of TGM went to press.
According to the New York Daily News, what happened in the New York Police Department’s license division amounted to “greenbacks and goodies from Former Assistant Brooklyn District Attorney John Chambers and other gun expediters, to speed up the permitting process.”
Chambers was the first of seven people charged in the case. He and others were accused of bribing New York police officers in order to smooth the process for getting a gun permit in The Big Apple, according to the New York Post.
Published accounts of the case have focused on statements and testimony of former NYPD Sgt. David Villaneuva, a former supervisor in the License Division, who admitted that he accepted “greenbacks and goodies” from Chambers and other so-called “gun expediters.” The purpose was allegedly to speed up the process for the privileged, to get or retain gun permits that can take many months for average citizens to obtain.
Instead of dismantling the Licensing Division, anti-gun Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has simply changed the division staff and made other changes.
However, courtroom revelations could ultimately provide ample arguments for dismantling such “discretionary issue” systems, replacing them with the kinds of “shall issue” laws now in effect in dozens of states where police and sheriff’s departments are required to issue licenses or permits to any qualified citizen who applies.
Seattle mayor set to challenge preemption law
The mayor of Seattle appears poised to take on Washington State’s 35-year-old model preemption law by proposing legislation requiring so-called “safe storage” of firearms and “increased civil penalties…for not reporting lost or stolen firearms.”
But gun rights activists are wondering if this effort, launched by Mayor Jenny Durkan, will stand up under the law, which places sole authority for gun regulation in the hands of the State Legislature. Seattle lost in court when it tried to ban firearms in city park facilities about eight years ago, when it was sued by a coalition that included the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Washington Arms Collectors and five individual citizens.
Here is the language of Washington’s model law:
“The state of Washington hereby fully occupies and preempts the entire field of firearms regulation within the boundaries of the state, including the registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge, and transportation of firearms, or any other element relating to firearms or parts thereof, including ammunition and reloader components. Cities, towns, and counties or other municipalities may enact only those laws and ordinances relating to firearms that are specifically authorized by state law, as in RCW 9.41.300, and are consistent with this chapter. Such local ordinances shall have the same penalty as provided for by state law. Local laws and ordinances that are inconsistent with, more restrictive than, or exceed the requirements of state law shall not be enacted and are preempted and repealed, regardless of the nature of the code, charter, or home rule status of such city, town, county, or municipality.”
The question many in the press have asked is whether this language has any “wiggle room” for the mayor and her colleagues to adopt such a measure.
According to a statement from Durkan’s office, Durkan and City Councilwoman M. Lorena Gonzalez, along with City Attorney Pete Holmes, will be “developing legislation.” The mayor says this will follow “outreach and engagement with stakeholders including gun owners, safety advocates, community members, public health experts and others.”
School rifle team gets funds after board refuses NRA grant
A school board in Pennsylvania was dining on crow after local businesses in the Stroudsburg school district flooded the local high school rifle team with donations because the board voted to reject a $4,730 grant from the National Rifle Association.
The Allentown Morning Call reported that one board member, Alex Reincke, described the proposed NRA grant as “dirty money.”
“I didn’t want to bring national politics into this but unfortunately we have no choice,” Reincke said, according to the newspaper account. “The NRA is a group that has transformed from a bunch of people who liked hunting in the ’50s to something that quite frankly is a hateful, divisive group that seeks nothing but to push guns on people.”
This compelled one member of the audience to reportedly remind the board that “we all vote.” However, the newspaper also noted that Reincke’s comments received applause from parents.
In the end, money talked and the rhetoric walked as Fox News reported nine local businesses shelled out more than $6,000 to replace the rejected grant.
The community is located in east-central Pennsylvania roughly 75 miles north from Philadelphia.
The incident is yet another demonstration of the visceral chasm that has opened between Americans on the gun control issue. There seems to be no middle ground on the issue of Second Amendment rights versus restrictive gun control proposals.
Federal Premium now USA Shooting sponsor
Federal Premium Ammunition is now the official shotshell ammunition sponsor and supplier of USA Shooting.
The sponsorship strengthens the non-profit organization’s efforts to promote the shooting sports and prepare American athletes to bring home gold from Tokyo in 2020.
As part of the new partnership, Federal Premium, a brand of Vista Outdoors, will also collaborate on marketing efforts and create specially marked boxes of Gold Medal shotshell, pistol and rifle ammunition to build greater awareness of USA Shooting.
Kentucky takes NCAA rifle title
For the second time in program history, the Kentucky University Wildcats are NCAA champions in rifle.
The Wildcats won their first national championship since 2011. Head coach Harry Mullins led UK to both wins. Kentucky used a three-point season best score, 4,717, to win by nine points over five-time defending NCAA Champion West Virginia University.
UK led WVU 2,345-2,327 after smallbore competition, and then held off the Mountaineers in air rifle. WVU shot a 2,381 compared with the Wildcats’ 2,372.
NRA Carry Guard Expo Sept. 14-16
The second National Rifle Association Carry Guard Expo is slated for Sept. 14-16 in Richmond, VA.
According to NRA, the event will be held in the Greater Richmond Convention Center. It’s a three-day educational and interactive experience designed to help armed citizens improve their knowledge about personal protection.
Firearms and accessory companies will be displaying in the exhibit hall. There will also be more than 120 seminars and workshops, NRA said.
